DBKL does not know
the real root causes of the flood. They may blame the rain volume and
development, or may even say it is an act of God, but did they explore
the root causes? I do not think so.
The eight KL residents should not give up on this flood mitigation
matter. They need to go all out even to the extent of citing DBKL and
the mayor for contempt of court if they do not follow the court order at
a later stage. Good luck and best wishes!
Dr Raman Letchumanan:
Kuala Lumpur floods every time it rains heavily and is getting worse
year by year. The city could come to a standstill for a week due to the
impact of the floods.
Now DBKL is building permanent structures
along rivers to stop river overflow, learning from the great success of
sandbags, and for the longer term, building underground hydrological
storage reservoirs. Of course, the millions spent on building the
Smart Tunnel, sucked out from toll charges, is no match for the current
downpour and raging floods.
At the other end of the spectrum, DBKL approves the destruction of
hills and green watershed areas to be replaced by compact high-density
buildings. All these are done in a hush-hush manner, and become known
only when the approval is given and clearing takes place. The standard
reply thereafter is that it will cost billions in taxpayers' money to terminate the contract/approval. How nice.
It
seems Kuala Lumpur city planners stand out as the most competent and
intelligent in how to prevent floods and destroy green areas at the same
time. In my years of environmental management, this is one aspect I
have never learnt.
Malaysia should get a Nobel prize for city
planning where the environment and destruction can go hand in hand. What
climate change nonsense the world is talking about? Learn from
Malaysia. Our financial model also works splendidly. DBKL just needs to
raise taxes by a swipe of the pen for all flood mitigation and
preventive efforts. If there is no spending on floods, how can
contractors get paid, generate business, and keep the economy going?
Developers can turn relatively inexpensive green areas into billions of profit while channelling rainwater into the city.
You
see, the only suckers are the city residents. They pay for overly
priced residences and to keep those residences from being flooded or
washed out. Like these city folks, who are educated and rich, they can
make all the noise they want, even cast their votes to the opposition,
but who controls Putrajaya makes the call.
This uniquely Malaysian
model of (un)sustainable environmental management and the fail-proof
economic/financial model gets repeated all over Malaysia.
That is
why even if our economy is in the doldrums and the ringgit plunging, we
have seen a proliferation of forest destruction all over the country for
all kinds of development/purposes. But the government knows best - call
elections when Malaysia is flooded so that they can remain in power
despite the misery of the people.
For every disaster, there is an
opportunity. What a democratic country, where the will of the people
determines their government. Some people call it corruption and abuse of
power, but no, we are battle-hardened to turn corruption into a virtue
for the sake of development and people's welfare.
In any case, I am astonished at the audacity of civil servants in
government agencies like the Environment Department (DOE) and the local
authorities that can continue to carry on this modus operandi.
From
court cases, we know the cosy relationship in the name of
political/welfare donation whitewashing between politicians and
developers. And I guess civil servants are emboldened because they are
protected by politicians from the enforcement agencies like MACC.
Those
unfortunate to be caught can be saved by the ubiquitous
'representation' we have seen in the last few years. And the few good
ones get hounded for whistle-blowing. Just look at an unrelated case of
doctors exposing the special medical treatment of former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak.
Long live Malaysia, its natural heritage, its forests, its birds and bees. Now you see it, now you don't.
